Prineville, the oldest established city in Central Oregon, still has annual cattle drives through its streets, branding parties, rodeos, local residents who banter at a downtown cafe and an occasional cowboy hat bobbing down Main Street.

It also has a 7-Eleven playing new country music, a Starbucks on the far end of town, a business park and modern real estate developments on historic ranchland.

Despite the latest amenities, Prineville, which was founded in 1868, has maintained a sense of history and Western authenticity, according to American Cowboy magazine. The magazine recently listed Prineville one of the best 20 places to live in the American West. The rating, in the April/May issue, was based on what makes a community Western — authentic cowboy culture, celebrations of history and heritage, recreational activities, a strong sense of community, and rugged independence.

So does the town live up to its Western rating? The Bulletin set out to see what locals, including those in business and government, think.

“The people like the heritage,” Hank Moss, owner of Square Dot Saddlery, said about the locals.

“It is definitely a cow/logging town,” Moss says, “and it always has been.”

Moss has lived in Prineville for 16 years. Born in Texas, he spent many years moving around the West and found himself in Eastern Oregon managing a ranch. He moved to Prineville to raise a family and started the shoe repair and custom tack shop.

Ranches are still a vibrant part of the community, but there are some places around the West where you see more cowboys because ranching has a greater influence on the economy, Moss says.

About one-third of the Prineville community is associated with ranching, according to Kelly McFarlane, 55, owner of Kelly McFarlane Contracting.

“It’s pretty close to the authentic cowboy culture because of the ranches and the people around here,” McFarlane said while eating a hamburger made with beef from a local ranch during lunch at Tastee Treat, a Prineville fixture since 1957. “It’s the real cowboy culture, not the perceived.”

Rural atmosphere

McFarlane, originally from Redmond, has lived in Powell Butte for four years. He moved near Prineville for the rural atmosphere and friendly citizens.

“Accessibility of the people,” McFarlane said about why he enjoys living in the community. “They wave and acknowledge you walking down the sidewalk. You don’t get that in Bend anymore.”

Bill Ledford, 35, co-owner of Keith Construction Services in Prineville, sat with McFarlane, his neighbor, for lunch. Ledford, who was raised in Powell Butte, frequents the Tastee Treat about three times a week. He’s stayed in the area because he likes the small-town atmosphere and outdoor activities.

“I enjoy it here,” he said. “That’s why I live here.

Tegen MacFarland, getting coffee at the Prineville Starbucks that opened in 2006, moved to Prineville four years ago because of her granddaughter’s birth in Central Oregon. She was not able to move to Bend or Redmond because it was too expensive.

MacFarland enjoys the outdoor recreation provided by the Prineville Reservoir and the Ochocos.

“If you get 20 or 30 miles out of town, there are a lot of mountains,” MacFarland said. “It’s a great spot for hiking.”

Prineville has a mix of people, including many retirees and those drawn to the area for outdoor recreation, MacFarland said.

The community has 10,370 people within city limits. According to Ledford, though, some things may change the small-town atmosphere, including Les Schwab Tire Centers’ moving its headquarters to Bend and the future development of IronHorse, a mixed-use community in Prineville.

“The mills’ laying off has changed the dynamics of the community,” added Jeff Anderson, Tastee Treat owner. “It pulls people out of the community and out of the school.”

Added McFarlane, the contractor: “It’s the lack of changes that make it attractive.”

Changes, though, appear on the horizon. Several new resorts are under way or planned around Prineville, and Economic Development for Central Oregon hired Jason Carr, manager of the Prineville and Crook County Development program, in 2007 to try to attract new industry and jobs to the area.

Old and new

IronHorse, a mixed-use community of more than 1,000 acres, started development in 2005. The community has homes for sale and is surrounded by open space and pathways. Plans are slated for schools, parks and a commercial area.

The planning process started with interviews with residents about what they liked and cared about in their community, according to Mark Nyman, principal broker of Brooks Resources Realty, a subsidiary of Brooks Resources Corp., which is developing IronHorse. As a result, IronHorse emphasizes recreational activities and a strong sense of community.

“In getting so much input from the community as to why they love it here, we did not set out to change that. We set out to embellish that in our community,” Nyman said.

The land was originally a ranch that raised workhorses and thoroughbreds — a history reflected in the development’s name.

The IronHorse name also represents a sense of free spirit and independence that Prineville embodies, according to Nyman. It refers to the history of the City of Prineville Railway. In 1910, the Union Pacific and Oregon Trunk Railways ran through Bend instead of Prineville, so Prineville built a railroad in 1918 that continues to run today.

The development’s name also reflects old locomotives referred to as “iron horses.”

“You learn things,” Nyman said about his nearly 20 years in Prineville. “You learn that Prineville has a charm that people hold on to dearly, and families have lived here and stayed here for generations. It’s kind of neat to see.”

Pilot Butte Hereford Ranch, with about 5,000 acres, was originally founded in the mid-1880s and remains in the same family hands. The Breese family grows hay and raises about 500 head of cattle for breeding and beef, some of which finds its way to Tastee Treat.

The ranch, though, has begun the initial phases of a housing development called Breese Ranch, preparing 2-acre lots for sale later this year. Three phases are planned, with a total of 36 lots.

The ranch had to find a new way to produce income other than through agriculture, according to Doug Breese, 66, ranch co-owner. He said the development plans include hiking trails for a more natural feel.

“All in all, what we would like to do is tell a story of what we do, why we do it, and don’t take it away from us,” Doug Breese said about the ranch’s development and survival. “I guess that’s what you call preserving history.”

Growth and economic development are necessary to keep a community sustainable, according to Vikki Iverson, real estate broker with Riata Realty. Iverson, 34, is the daughter of Doug and Jean Breese and represents the ranch’s real estate development with her mother.

“We know that growth has to happen, needs to happen, and we would rather see that happen in a way that fits into the community, the lifestyle of the community and the values of the people that live here,” Iverson said. “We would rather do something that fits into the Prineville community.”

Future residents of Breese Ranch will have amenities available less than five minutes away in downtown Prineville, but they can still sit on their porches in the evening and watch cattle graze, she said. “We really wanted to represent that more rural lifestyle, and that is really what Prineville has been for years. And with the growth in other areas, especially in the Bend area and Redmond area, it’s nice to offer something of what the history has been in the past.”

Iverson is the fifth generation of Breeses living in Prineville. Her children are the sixth.

Her husband, Bryan Iverson, 35, is president of the Prineville-Crook County Chamber of Commerce, promotions director for the Crooked River Roundup and owner of Iverson Media. An advertising agency, Iverson Media was established in Bend in 2003 and moved to Prineville in 2005.

New companies doing business in Prineville that attach themselves to the community will do fine, Bryan Iverson said.

“We are a small-town community and if you come in and blend in and don’t try to make too many ruffles, people will accept you, like I have been,” he said, “and I feel pretty blessed about that.”

Recently, though, some locals have stood up to what they fear could be too much change in their community from additional destination resort development in Crook County.

In October, the Crook County Court passed a measure to block new destination resort developments in the county for at least three years. The ordinance was passed after 66 percent of county voters supported a measure asking county officials to repeal the destination resort map. The decision won’t affect resorts approved before the measure passed.

Western heritage

The annual Crooked River Roundup, horse races and cattle drives through town are ways to celebrate local history, according to Iverson. This will be the roundup’s 64th year at the Crook County fairgrounds, which add a Western feel to Prineville.

An authentic Western community is not based solely on looks. If you judged Western authenticity on how many cowboy hats you see, says Iverson, you would never leave Texas.

“I think that’s where Prineville really shines,” he said. “Maybe they don’t wear cowboy hats and the cowboy garb that they might in other states, but they are cowboys for sure.”

Crook County Judge Mike McCabe, born and raised in Prineville, does wear a cowboy hat to work every day.

“I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s a habit as much as anything. And I don’t carry an umbrella,” said McCabe, 57.

McCabe enjoys the area’s customs and culture, which have changed little despite the many new faces appearing in the county and the city.

“We are pretty modern, but still we haven’t let go of the past,” McCabe said. “Most of the ranchers and livestock folks still do the things the same way they did 100 years ago.”

McCabe left Prineville for 20 years, working for an agricultural lender around the Northwest. In 1987, when his father died, he returned to take over the family ranching operation, about 400 acres of irrigated land.

As for the American Cowboy magazine’s designation: “It was kind of an honor,” McCabe said. “Our ZIP code is not E-I-E-I-O, but it’s a nice community. We have clean air and clean water, and it’s just a nice, nice area.”

The magazine’s recognition will help diversify the Central Oregon Visitors Association message to a growing customer base outside the United States, according to Alana Audette, president and CEO of COVA.

“It’s going to be important and helpful for us to reach out to new markets that are seeking an authentic Western experience,” Audette said.

Central Oregon is known for its outdoor activities, and this announcement will help represent the Western experience to international markets like Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, Audette noted.

The designation by American Cowboy magazine acknowledges Prineville’s integration of history and the present to maintain an authentic Western culture.

Ranching is still a major influence in the region and, according to Gordon Gillespie, museum director for 15 years at the A.R. Bowman Memorial Museum in Prineville, ranching and farming constituted the foundation of Central Oregon.

“The fact that you can see the county judge going to work in his cowboy hat every morning shows that the values are still the same,” Gillespie said. “A shake of the hand seems to be good enough in this community.”